17 Photos of Meghan Markle’s Stunning Transformation Since Becoming a Royal

Lauren Cahn

Watch as we trace the evolution of Meghan’s style from television actress to HRH The Duchess of Sussex.

1 / 17

Photo: Picture Perfect/Shutterstock

In her previous life…

Meghan Markle, born Rachel Meghan Markle, was once a fairly recognizable Hollywood actress, thanks primarily to her role on television’s Suits as “Rachel Zane,” the beautiful biracial paralegal who aspires to become an attorney and captures the heart of the series’ lead, Mike Ross. This photo was taken at the Anti-Defamation League Awards Dinner in Los Angeles in 2011—three months after the show’s premiere and one month after her real-life wedding to Trevor Engelson.

Meghan, is that you?

On May 17, 2012, Meghan posed for the cameras at the USA Network’s Upfront Presentation, wearing a beige miniskirt and ivory sleeveless shell with cut-out open-toed pumps. Her hair appears to have been lightened to a chestnut-auburn shade. This is a look we aren’t likely to see the Duchess of Sussex trying out again because it goes against the Queen’s fashion rules in multiple ways.

A now-retired smile-style

In September 2012, Meghan posed for the cameras at the 13th Annual InStyle and Hollywood Foreign Press Association Toronto International Film Festival Party in Toronto with a pouty smile we haven’t seen since she became involved with Prince Harry.

A body-con look she could still pull off…

…if she weren’t now a member of the royal family. Meghan looks amazing in a midriff-bearing bandage dress designed by Herve Leger for Max Azria at a 2013 fashion show. But if she got to keep the dress after the show, it’s likely gathering dust in her closet as Meghan hasn’t been photographed in anything this body-conscious since she married Prince Harry.

Before she perfected her royal leg-crossing game

Also in 2013, this is what Meghan wore at New York City’s Fashion Week. Meghan looked entirely appropriate for a Hollywood celebrity attending a fashion show. But the leg-cross is all wrong for a duchess.

Another pose we rarely see now that she’s a duchess

In October 2014, at an event benefitting Elton John’s AIDS Foundation, Meghan struck this pose which is fairly routine for actresses and models in Hollywood but almost unheard of among members of the royal family.

A daring look from a matchmaking designer

At the Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in New York on November 2, 2015, Meghan modeled a daringly low-plunging dress designed by Misha Nonoo, who some speculate may be the person who introduced Meghan to Harry on a blind date in early July 2016. “We were introduced actually by a mutual friend,” Harry revealed during the couple’s first sit-down interview with the BBC following their engagement announcement. Others claim the mutual friend is Violet von Westenholz.

Introducing… the new girlfriend of Prince Harry

When this photo was taken in September 2016, Meghan had recently been “outed” as Prince Harry’s new girlfriend. Her style—a relatively modest pants suit and slickly straight hair—is a very subtle hint at Meghan’s future style as Duchess of Sussex.

The iconic “husband shirt”

Another design by Misha Nonoo, the “husband shirt,” worn with ripped, faded jeans, is rumored to be the “piece of clothing that ‘sealed the deal’” with Prince Harry. The happy couple is pictured here at the Invictus Games in Toronto, Canada on September 25, 2017, a mere two months before Harry popped the question.

Evolving a more modest style

Prince Harry had proposed to Meghan only days before this photo was taken on December 1, 2017, at an AIDS Day Charity Fair in Nottingham, United Kingdom. In a tulip-skirt, long-sleeved sweater, and chunky, slouchy boots, it’s clear Meghan’s style is evolving.

12 / 17

Photo: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

First official engagement with the Queen

Pictured with Prince Harry at her first official engagement as a future member of the royal family (the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey, which was also attended by Meghan’s future grandmother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II), Meghan looks like an entirely different person from the Meghan of 2011 in a coat and dress by British designer, Amanda Wakely, and a very royal-esque matching beret.

13 / 17

Photo: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

Looking unmistakably royal

On February 13, 2018, Prince Harry and Meghan paid a visit to Edinburgh Castle, with Meghan wearing a tartan coat by Britain’s Burberry over flared black trousers.

Her first Wimbledon as a royal

For the Duchess of Sussex’s first Wimbledon Championships as a member of the royal family, she dressed the part in a blue and white striped button down and wide-legged white pants as she stood beside her sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton), except for one small detail: her entire outfit was by classic American designer, Ralph Lauren.

A variation on the tulip skirt

The Duchess of Sussex clearly knows that a flared skirt flatters her figure while still maintaining the decorum required of a royal. On October 31, 2018, she wore a blue pleated and flared skirt with a matching sweater, her baby bump almost invisible still.

Second-trimester style

On a visit to Brinsworth House in Twickenham, London on December 18, the Duchess of Sussex wore a floral-print dress that showed off her baby bump but kept it classy and British with a coat by Soia & Kyo, a Canadian label, and a handbag by Britain’s Wilbur & Gussie.

Lauren Cahn is a New York-based writer whose work has appeared regularly in The Huffington Post as well as a variety of other publications since 2008 on such topics as life and style, popular culture, law, religion, health, fitness, yoga, entertaining and entertainment. She is also a writer of crime fiction; her first full-length manuscript, The Trust Game, was short-listed for the 2017 CLUE Award for emerging talent in the genre of suspense fiction.